Vanilla Coffee
by overlyconcerned
Summary: During a case in which Alan defends a woman who introduced bondage to her teen's friends, he is forced to contemplate his own relationship style.
1. Chapter 1

a/n: This story was inspired by this episode of Oprah (but with a Secretary twist. I couldn't resist). There is more information about this story on Oprah's website, if you're curious.

Also, I'm not a lawyer, so any made-up legalese is purely my fault.

**Vanilla Coffee**

Alan was sitting in his office, contemplating whether or not to take a certain case. It had all the quirkiness and intrigue of a typical dispute that he would have jumped at the chance to try, but he actually felt a little apprehensive about defending a woman who had introduced bondage to her daughter's friends. It was one thing to introduce sex to your own kids (in fact, Alan heavily encouraged education in all things sexual), but to force your sexual preferences on someone else's kids seemed a little inappropriate. Especially when those preferences included tying people up. In reality, he supposed, it didn't actually much matter what he thought. The mother in question was a friend of the firm's, and because the case was (remotely) related to sex, it had automatically been passed on to him. He could probably reject the case, but it would take more work than he was willing to put in. Sometimes living up to a stereotype was exhausting.

He sighed and glanced down at his over-priced watch. (He had never understood some fascination with expensive watches…they were like jewelry, and yet seen as a symbol of manliness.) It was almost time for the preliminary meeting with his the client in question, Kate Harris. He reluctantly got up from his desk to speak with his secretary.

"Melissa, I'm expecting a visit from a new client, Ms. Harris. I'm ready for her, so please send her back when she comes in."

"Sure thing, Mr. Shore!" Melissa replied brightly, accompanied by a flirty wink. Alan fought very hard to suppress the urge to roll his eyes. As enticing as she was, her preppy come-ons sometimes made him feel almost like a pedophile.

He began to prepare himself for the meeting, taking a brand new legal pad out from one of his drawers, and equipping himself with a black fountain pen. As cliché as it was, taking handwritten notes on a legal pad helped Alan to see the big picture and make connections he never would have seen working off of a computer screen. In an attempt to maintain his precise organization, he titled his notes with the client's name and the date.

As if on cue, a meticulously, if tastelessly dressed woman opened the door to Alan's office and strode confidently inside. He rose to shake her hand and introduce himself, and was surprised at her domineering stature, until he looked down and realized she was wearing 3" heels. If it weren't for the fact that he knew better, her pale pink suit and blonde hair would have led him to believe she was a Texan realtor, not a Boston housewife.

"Please take a seat," he encouraged, as he gestured to a classy wooden chair placed in front of his desk. "That's an unusual necklace you have," Alan continued, "it's very pretty." He had been trained well to make his clients feel at ease, and complimenting women came naturally to him.

"Why, thank you," Ms. Harris accepted, while fingering the unusually heavy chain around her neck. Alan could have sworn he detected a hint of a blush on the otherwise composed woman's cheeks.

"Now, I've been informed that you're being charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and involving a minor in obscene acts. Today I'd like to go over your side of the story, so I can determine what kind of defense we have."

"Of course," she answered warmly. Alan had found through his years of experience that people reacted differently to being accused of a crime. Kate Harris was not only completely calm, but almost treated the business meeting as if she and Alan had gone out to lunch together.

"So go ahead and tell me about the night in question. Try to tell me everything, whether you believe it's relevant or not."

"Well, my daughter was having a slumber party with some of her best friends," Kate began. "She's 16. Do you need to see a picture?"

"Let's stick to the story, for now. But I'd like to meet her later," Alan replied patiently.

"Ok. So, she and her friends were doing typical girl stuff, making cookies, gossiping about boys. As it started to get later, they popped in a movie. A typical romantic chick flick."

Alan started to get the feeling that this was definitely not the right case for him.

"Anyway, when the movie was over, the girls were discussing the two main characters. My daughter, especially, was offended at the movie's portrayal of the female sex," she said proudly. "They were complaining about how the movie had depicted the women in the movieas mindless and monotonous. The female lead, in particular, spent the entire movie chasing after a model-type only to catch him and have uneventful, unimaginative sex."

Alan nodded, feeling apprehension at where he knew the story was likely to go.

"Now, I of course, couldn't help but overhear this conversation," Kate continued in a manner that suggested she wasn't embarrassed about overhearing at all. "I just knew that I had to step in. I mean, these girls had to know that there could be more to love than the boring, vanilla relationships characterized by Hollywood. So I introduced the girls to my lifestyle."

Alan looked up from the legal pad where he was copiously taking notes. He had to admit, she was certainly passionate, if a little misguided. "Your lifestyle?" he urged her.

"My husband and I partake in a completely safe and consensual sado/masochistic relationship. Although we tend to focus less on pain and more on exploring our dominant and submissive tendencies. it has created a wonderfully strong bond between us – you would be surprised at what some people could learn about themselves by experiment with different aspects of their personalities" Alan perceived for a second that she was implying something personal, and busied himself with taking notes again.

"So how did you 'introduce' this to your daughter and her friends?" he prompted her further.

"Well, at first it started out as just a conversation. I just explained to them that there were alternative ways to have a relationship, and then I told them about my husband and I. And then when my husband came home from work – he was away on a business trip – we gave them a little demonstration.

"What kind of demonstration?" Alan inquired wearily.

"Oh, absolutely nothing harmful." Kate assured him. "And there was absolutely no intercourse. For Pete's sakes, not one of us even took our clothes off. Dan and I just showed them some basic rope play, and then they experimented some themselves."

"I see. And did the girls volunteer to participate, or was that you or your husband's idea?"

"Well, it was our idea, but they were definitely willing participants. They were just curious, Mr. Shore, and I'm just glad that we were there to properly educate them. But nothing that we did could have hurt those girls, physically or otherwise."

"Well, if that is true, Ms. Harris, it seems to me that you have a very strong case. Nothing delinquent or obscene happened here, it was just inappropriate for you to parent another person's child. At another meeting, I'd like to go over your story in more detail, and perhaps talk to your daughter, but for now I'm going to need you to sign some paperwork."

"So that means you're taking my case?" Kate asked.

"Yes, I'm taking your case," Alan answered as crossed the room to ask Melissa to prepare some documents.


	2. Chapter 2

As Alan started to cross the room, he noticed through his large windows that Melissa was talking to someone at her receptionist station in front of his office. Although a file cabinet was completely blocking her face, he could see her skirt and her heels, and he was more than moderately impressed by the woman's lower extremities.

"Could I trouble you for a glass of water?" Kate Harris asked, jolting Alan out of his oblivion that was often induced in the presence of a truly beautiful woman. "I'm parched, after all this talking," she delivered, as if it were a joke.

"Not a problem," Alan answered. He wasn't sure he understood what was funny, but he was quickly learning that Ms. Harris was a little unusual. Not necessarily annoying, but unusual.

By the time Alan reached Melissa's desk, the woman with the sexy legs had left, but not without Alan catching a glimpse of her long brown hair as she got on to the firm's elevator. He wondered why she was talking to Melissa, and he hoped it was about him.

"Melissa, I'm taking Kate Harris on as a new client, could you get me the paperwork that I need?"

"That's what I'm here for," Melissa answered. She leaned into him, and Alan wondered what she was doing. "Does she really let her husband, like, spank her?" she whispered with an arched eyebrow.

"Were you eavesdropping, Melissa?" Alan asked sternly. "Technically, that's illegal. It violates lawyer/client privilege."

"No. Yes. Maybe a little," she answered sheepishly. "But technically, she's not your client until she signs these," she said, mischievously waving the papers she had already started to gather.

He didn't have the heart to tell her that she was wrong, so instead went to grab a glass of water for Ms. Harris. By the time he came back, Melissa was ready to hand him a thick stack of paper.

"Thanks. You look lovely today, by the way." He knew he shouldn't, but some days he couldn't help but egg her on.

"Oh, and Alan?" Melissa said. "A woman brought this by for you while you were in the meeting. She dropped a blank, white envelope on his stack of papers. "She was hot, too," she said, almost regretfully.

"Thank you, Melissa," he said, as he entered back into his office.

Ms. Harris looked up from her purse, where she was digging around quite vehemently. She dropped it, however, and accepted the glass of water from him. He set the documents on the tabletop between them, and slipped the envelope into his top desk drawer. As curious as he was, he thought it was a little inappropriate for him to open the envelope while the other woman was still in the room. And she was paying for his time.

"I'll need you to take these documents home, Ms. Harris and look them over. Your husband should probably read them through, also. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call me. Sign them, and then we can set up our next meeting." He was suddenly anxious to end the meeting.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Shore," Kate gushed as she gathered up the papers from the table. She was so excited about the case, even though she was under attack. "Maybe it turns her on," he thought to himself. "I'll be in touch," she said, as she opened up the heavy glass door that led from his office.

As soon as she was gone, he pulled out the crisp, white envelope from his desk drawer. He flipped it over as he began to open it, and noticed his name written clearly on the back, neatly and in blue pen.

Suddenly he felt intoxicated and slightly nauseous at the same time. He thought back to the woman he had barely seen, talking to Melissa and leaving Crane, Poole and Schmidt.

To him, the handwriting on the envelope was unmistakable.


	3. Chapter 3

a/n: This is a short chapter, but it was kind of difficult to capture that "pompous Alan Shore intimidation" thing…let me know what you think!

Michael Lewis was exactly the type of lawyer that Alan had always hated. He was the type of person that had proclaimed in junior high that he had wanted to be a lawyer, but you invariably knew it was more about the money and power, than about any actual intellectual interest in the profession. He was also the type of person who shared his opinion freely on any topic, whether it was wanted or not. He was the type of person who cared less whether or not he actually knew what he was talking about. And he was the type of person that Alan Shore detested.

Mr. Lewis was representing the families of the teenage girls who had experienced Kate Harris' "rope-play" demonstration. Although Alan could see why the families were upset about their girls being exposed to such controversial material, he thought that a settlement was very likely. The case had a lot of emotional appeal, but the law was fairly clear on the issue of what was defined as explicit behavior.

After walking into opposing counsel's firm, Alan knew he was going to have trouble controlling himself in the presence of Mr. Lewis. Everyone in the building had an air of pretension, and Alan knew he was supposed to feel intimidated. A crisply dressed, yet unattractive secretary led him to an open door that Alan assumed was Mr. Lewis'. His office was mid-sized and decorated so as to portray authority and swank. Unfortunately for Mr. Lewis, it failed horribly. Alan had a suspicion that he never actually worked in his office, just yelled important things into his phone all day.

"Hello, Mr. Lewis, my name is Alan Shore and I represent Kate Harris. You, your clients, Ms. Harris, and most importantly, I all know that this case is trivial, in the ultimate scheme of things. I suggest we reach an agreement, and then instead of going to trial, we can all go out for drinks. Or perhaps, chain each other to the furniture. Your office or mine?"

"You seem to find the situation amusing, Mr. Shore, but I assure you my clients and I find it anything but. Not only did your client Ms. Harris introduce a sexually explicit topic to a group of minors, but she made an egregious step out of her prescribed boundaries when she dispensed relationship advice to her daughter's friends, regardless of what that advice might have been." Alan wasn't impressed or intimidated by his use of large words.

"I do find the situation amusing, Mike. May I call you Mike?" Alan didn't wait for the answer. "I find it amusing that Ms. Harris was doing nothing more explicit than what is shown on MTV every week, and yet your clients exhibit an egregious lack of parenting skills when they don't sue the television company. You will not win this case. You don't even have a legitimate cause of action – absolutely nothing illegal occurred under the watch of Ms. Harris."

Despite Alan's passionate deliverance, Mr. Lewis looked smug. "You see, Alan, it doesn't much matter to me whether or not we win at trial. What really matters in this case is that your client and her family will be exposed as perverse, sexual deviants. Introducing bondage to her daughter's friends is so abhorred in multiple ways, that your client won't be able to exist in society without a negative stigma. My clients care less about getting a monetary settlement than they care about getting revenge, and going to trial will cause irreversible harm Ms. Harris. "

"Well, off to trial we go then," Alan said sarcastically, as he picked up his briefcase from the floor of the tacky office. "But I assure you that it takes quite a lot to embarrass me or my client in open court, Mr. Lewis. I would take care so as not to embarrass yourself."


End file.
